Heat Looking To Sweep Bucks

April 24, 2013

MIAMI - Dwyane Wade scored 21 points, LeBron James finished with 19 and the Miami Heat took off in the fourth quarter to pull away and beat the Milwaukee Bucks 98-86 in Game 2 of the teams' Eastern Conference first-round series on Tuesday night.

Chris Bosh, Shane Battier and Chris Andersen all scored 10 points for the Heat, who now lead the best-of-seven 2-0. Game 3 is Thursday in Milwaukee.

The Heat scored the first 12 points of the fourth quarter, needing just over 2 minutes to blow open what had been a three-point game.

And an already-daunting task for Milwaukee - beating the reigning NBA champions - just got tougher. James is 10-0 when his teams have a 2-0 series lead, and Wade is 8-0 in that situation.

The first 2:23 of the fourth quarter decided everything. Andersen started it with a three-point play, James had a layup not long afterward and the Heat were starting to roll. Another basket by Andersen off a pass from Ray Allen made it 77-65, and James found Norris Cole for a 3-pointer that capped the flurry and made it 80-65.

Just like that, it was over.

Knicks 87, Celtics 71

NEW YORK (AP) - Carmelo Anthony scored 34 points, Sixth Man of the Year J.R. Smith added 19, and the New York Knicks opened a 2-0 lead over the Boston Celtics.

Raymond Felton added 16 points for the Knicks, who used a 27-4 run spanning halftime to blow it open and move halfway to their first series victory since the 2000 Eastern Conference semifinals. This is their first 2-0 lead since sweeping Toronto in the first round that year.

Paul Pierce scored 18 points for the Celtics, who will host Game 3 on Friday in their first home game since the Boston Marathon bombings.

They will have to be much sharper to avoid their first opening-round elimination since 2005, before they became one of the NBA's power teams again.

Kevin Garnett had 12 points and 11 rebounds, but battled foul trouble and spent too much time walking back to the bench with a raucous Madison Square Garden crowd finally experiencing playoff success again hounding him every step of the way.

Plagued by turnovers in Game 1, the Celtics watched it all fall apart 12 minutes earlier this time.